Features

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Last week Lubnah Shomali of BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights gave a presentation to TDs and staff in Leinster House. BADIL was established in January 1998 based on recommendations issued by a series of popular refugee conferences in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Its goal is the protection and promotion of the rights of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons.

Palestinian refugees constitute one of the largest and longest-standing unresolved refugee groups in the world today. According to recent estimates, at least 7.9 million (67%) of 11.8 million Palestinians worldwide are forcibly displaced persons. As Shomali pointed out, the displacement of Palestinians is ‘continuous and ongoing’ – an ‘ongoing Nakba (‘Catastrophe’)’.Read More

Ghost of Health Service Future: Sensible Policy For A Deadlier Ireland

Back when we were a small country with only
the occasional old five pound note
invested under our long suffering mattresses,
in the golden age of scurvy, typhus, plague
there was always something fatal
to take the frail off our hands
at hardly any expense to anyone,
bar the price of digging the grave.

Now, some scientist comes flapping daily
from the laboratory to declare another bastard
disease sadly no longer incurable.
The long term cost of all this
getting better will be our ruin.

Below, a press release from Shannonwatch on the dismissal of charges brought against peace activist Edward Horgan.

Shannonwatch welcomes the dismissal of charges brought by the State against Edward Horgan at Ennis District Court today. The charges were a result of his attempt to inspect US military aircraft parked near the terminal building on April 18th 2015.

“Today’s acquittal at Ennis District would was a small step in the right direction towards ending US military use of Shannon” said Dr Horgan. “This is just the latest in a series of trials of peace activists over their efforts to prevent complicity with war crimes at Shannon airport. This campaign will continue until Irish neutrality is restored, and Shannon airport is returned to proper civilian use only.”

Dr Horgan was on his way to a peace conference in London on the day in question when he saw four US Hercules C-130 turboprop aircraft lined up just beyond the Aer Lingus plane he was boarding. Evidence to the court showed that he engaged in a “communicative protest” by walking towards the military planes to highlight the need to inspect them.Read More

Edward Horgan of Shannonwatch on the NATO warships in Dublin port last weekend, and continuing, routine breaches of Irish neutrality at Shannon:

In a further breach of Irish neutrality, six NATO warships were providing ‘fun’ for children at Dublin port last weekend (this will help us to ignore the children who are killed and maimed by NATO bombs in the Middle East, and the children being drowned almost daily trying to flee from these conflicts).

Meanwhile, on Sunday morning at Shannon there were four US warplanes lined up on the centre of the airport being protected by three levels of questionable security: Irish army, Gardaí, and airport police. It was a somewhat unusual array of warplanes. There was a Hercules C130 number CW5159, a US Navy C40 Clipper cargo/troop carrier number 5831, an executive jet number 093, and a small turbo prop aircraft number 8205. All this in a supposedly neutral country, as the United States continues its wars of aggression and resource wars across the Middle East, supported by Ireland.Read More